U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was in Paris Friday to pay tribute to those killed in the Charlie Hebdo attacks, in a visit aimed to make amends for the absence of senior U.S. officials at Sunday's march.

Speaking to his French counterpart, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, early in the morning Kerry apologized for missing the vigil due to previous commitments in Bulgaria and India.

Kerry also met French President Francois Hollande and visited the sites of the city's worst terrorist attacks in decades. Twenty people, including the three gunmen, were killed last week in attacks on a kosher supermarket and the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and on police.

Hollande thanked Kerry for offering France support, saying, "You've been victims yourself of an exceptional terrorist attack on Sept. 11. You know what it means for a country."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) meets with French President Francois Hollande on at Elysee Palace in Paris January 16, 2015.

Image: REUTERS/Rick Wilking /Associated Press

He arrived hours after the funerals of five of the victims, including cartoonists Georges Wolinski and Bernard "Tignous" Verlhac, and the police guard at the Charlie Hebdo offices. The artist known as Tignous was buried in a coffin covered in cartoons.

Kerry's visit, which he's described as a "big hug", was set to end with a speech at the city's town hall, followed by a performance from James Taylor.

Meanwhile, French and German authorities arrested at least 12 people Friday suspected of links to the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS. Gare de l'Est train station in Paris was evacuated after a bomb scare, with Europe on alert for potential new terrorist attacks.

Adding to the tension, an armed man was holding at least two hostages in a post office in Colombes, a Paris suburb, French media reported. The man was known to police and the situation was not believed to be related to terrorism, BFMTV said.

The police raids came the morning after Belgian authorities moved swiftly to pre-empt what they called a major impending attack, killing two suspects in a firefight and arresting a third in a vast anti-terrorism sweep that stretched into the night.

The Paris prosecutor's office said at least 10 people were arrested in anti-terrorism raids in the region, targeting people linked to one of the French gunmen, Amedy Coulibaly, who claimed ties to ISIS. In Berlin, police arrested two men Friday morning on suspicion of recruiting fighters for ISIS in Syria.

Across Europe, anxiety has grown as the hunt continues for potential accomplices of the three Paris gunmen, and as authorities try to prevent attacks by the thousands of European extremists who have joined ISIS extremists in Syria and Iraq.

"The fight against terrorism must be international. Everybody must act: France, Europe and every country," Fabius said Friday.

Several other countries are also involved in the hunt for possible accomplices to Coulibaly and the other gunmen in the French attacks, brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi. The Kouachi brothers claimed allegiance to al-Qaeda in Yemen, and Coulibaly to ISIS.

France's Parliament voted this week to extend airstrikes against ISIS extremists in Iraq.

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